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Our staff are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to support our residents (and each other) through the Coronavirus crisis. Adam works with homeless people in Worksop. He took some time out of his day to answer some questions.
How has the Coronavirus impacted on you?
I have currently been on my final 100-day placement for my social work degree and had just 2 weeks left to finish when the all the colleges and universities closed down and all our placements were terminated early. I was lucky as I completed my placement portfolio and the required evidence of practice early on, and as long as I completed the last of my academic work and submitted on time, I was on track to pass.
My well done to myself, consisting of a month travelling to Japan, Vietnam then on to Borneo in June has been scrapped, but there is always next year!
I miss seeing my grandchildren most as they spent loads of time with us, sleeping over and it’s been hard since before Christmas not having them stop over as much due to placement and working at Potter Street most weekends, but it was a sacrifice I had to make and thought its only till April.
My wife is at home now as the school where she worked as a catering assistant has also closed, we have never spent so much time together, discovering new things about each other, who would have thought she had a middle name and doesn’t work at a café in town (joke, well that’s what I will claim if asked).
I have not done the panic buying as seen on the news, since spending time homeless, I am not trusted to go shopping on my own as I have a fear of having no food and money so I see things on offer and I buy them, I fear empty cupboards a legacy of my past, it gets a bit much when I come home with 48 more toilet rolls and 6 tins’ of corned beef as they were offer!
The mother in law had a knee operation recently and is not in the best of health and is in isolation so deliver cooked food to her as well as running errands for an elderly couple at the end of the road.
How has the Coronavirus impacted the service?
I’ve always liked to cook good meals most weekends for the residents and sit with them on a Sunday afternoon chatting in the training room, there is nothing like sitting down with about 15 people, and just talking, not being a worker but just someone who is eating with them and moaning and laughing about the same things they do.
I feel it’s important for them as well to build relationships with each other by talking and eating together and not just passing on the stairs.
I still cook but I get people to come down to the kitchen one at a time to collect their food and take back to their rooms, a good meal is a small comfort to a resident that may be struggling with having to try and stay in, and who can’t afford to bulk buy as maintaining an addiction takes priority over coronavirus.
What have you done in response?
This last few weeks I have been placing food into containers and using the big freezers in case we have residents who have to self-isolate, stews and other healthy meals.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
I hope that all essential keyworkers still get the recognition they deserve after all this is over.
